Miami Open 2023: Kvitova defeats Rybakina for 30th career title
Kvitova won her first Miami Open.
Showing courage at a crucial moment, Czech tennis player Petra Kvitova defeated Indian Wells champion Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina 7-6 (14), 6-2 to capture her first Miami Open and her 30th career title.
"I think it's the best feeling you can get when you win the final like I did today," Kvitova said. "That's what I love most, the feeling of victory."
Kvitova, 33, joined Serena Williams and Chrissy Evert as the only woman to compete in the final in Miami after celebrating her 33rd birthday. Among active tennis players, only Venus Williams (49) holds more tournament titles than Kvitova, who has raised her final record to 30-11.
In front of packed stands, where former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson also watched the final, Kvitova beat Rybakina for the second time this season to lead 2-1 in their head-to-head streak to return to the Top 10.
Kvitova broke Rybakina's career-best 13-game winning streak to inflict the Australian Open finalist's first tiebreaker loss of the season.
"Of course, today's tie-break was decisive," said Kvitova. "I think it was the longest match I've ever played in my life and it was like, yeah, if I didn't serve, I wouldn't be able to be there. I mean, I had about three aces at the start and it was really hard. I had a break like in the first set and she beat me back. I'm really happy, I'm really tired."
This is Kvitova's biggest tournament title since 2019 in Madrid as she made history as the first Czech woman to win a Miami Open title.
What a week it has been for Kvitova, who won two sets yesterday with a score of 7-5, 6-4 against Sorana Kirsti and withstood a lot of stress in the tie-break today.
10th seed Rybakina had 12 aces, scored 31 of 39 points on the first serve and had several opportunities to close the debutante. Rybakina's 69 aces in those two weeks is the most by a woman in the WTA 1000 tournament, although she looked exhausted in the later stages of the second set.
Ultimately, Rybakina said trying to decipher Kvitova's left serve and recoup the Czech's smooth, fast moves was not easy.
"It took me a while to get used to Petra's balls. In addition, she plays very low and it's not easy against her," said Rybakina. "And also, to try and read the serves, she's left-handed, so that's kind of an advantage, because last game I played right-handed, so it wasn't easy. And she played really well. Yeah, I think in the second I just wasn't disciplined and was a little rushed."